The present invention relates conservation, more particularly to a water conservation device, kit and associated method for use in capturing gray water generated from a drain of a fresh water utility apparatus operationally connected to a fresh water source and in recycling the captured gray water to a gray water utility apparatus.
One of the most essential ingredients for life is wholesome, palatable drinking water. Throughout the history of mankind, wars have been fought over the possession and ownership of bodies of potable water. Man may exit for weeks upon nothing but water and its essential value has always been recognized.
In modern times, through industrialization, urbanization and population growth, vast sources of clean water have been eliminated or so contaminated as to be rendered unfit for human consumption. The invention involves a system whereby available water supplies are more judiciously utilized by improved and more effective distribution, thus saving a substantial fraction of water without harming the consumer or the community.
In household sinks and showers of conventional systems currently in use, the water is soiled by soap and material washed from a person""s body, and discharged to the sewer drain. With laundry washing machines the sewer discharged water is soiled by the detergent and the dirt from the laundry. With rain water the dtritus is largely leaves, twigs and air borne soot. Such water is commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cgray matter.xe2x80x9d
In water closets of toilets their proper functioning is predicated upon the provision of a proper liquid volumetric vehicles, usually several gallons of water are required to carry off the waste contained therein. It is not essential that the water used in these devices be potable in the strict sense. The waste entailed in conventional systems is not only of natural resources but also is an unnecessary drain on the user.
A wide variety of water conservation devices is currently available on the commercial market and an even larger number of these types of devices are known in the art of water conservation devices, for example, the water conservation system disclosed by Call in U.S. Pat. No. 3,112,497; the recirculating sewerage system disclosed by Davis in U.S. Pat. No. 4,017,395; the water recirculation system disclosed by Toms in U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,879; the dual outlet bathtub drain valve for water conservation system disclosed by Coe, III in U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,886; the shower water recycling apparatus disclosed by Sanchez in U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,218; and the wastewater treatment tank disclosed by Pomier in U.S. Pat. No. 445,477.
While all of the above-described devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe a water conservation device having operationally interconnected elements of a T-junction pipe, a first shutoff valve, a filter entrance pipe, a water filter apparatus, a filter exit pipe, a storage tank, an overflow pipe, an air vent stack, a second shutoff valve, a bypass pipe, a fresh water feed pipe, a third shutoff valve, a fresh water drain pipe, a fourth shutoff valve, a grey water drain pipe, a water pump, and a primary grey water feed pipe. This combination of elements would specifically match the user""s particular individual needs of making it possible to capture gray water generated from a drain of a fresh water utility apparatus operationally connected to a fresh water source and to recycle the captured gray water to a gray water utility apparatus. The above-described patents make no provision for a water conservation device having operationally interconnected elements of a T-junction pipe, a first shutoff valve, a filter entrance pipe, a water filter apparatus, a filter exit pipe, a storage tank, an overflow pipe, an air vent stack, a second shutoff valve, a bypass pipe, a fresh water feed pipe, a third shutoff valve, a fresh water drain pipe, a fourth shutoff valve, a grey water drain pipe, a water pump, and a primary grey water feed pipe.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved water conservation device having operationally interconnected elements of a T-junction pipe, a first shutoff valve, a filter entrance pipe, a water filter apparatus, a filter exit pipe, a storage tank, an overflow pipe, an air vent stack, a second shutoff valve, a bypass pipe, a fresh water feed pipe, a third shutoff valve, a fresh water drain pipe, a fourth shutoff valve, a grey water drain pipe, a water pump, and a primary grey water feed pipe. In this respect, the water conservation device according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing a means for capturing gray water generated from a drain of a fresh water utility apparatus operationally connected to a fresh water source and a means for recycling the captured gray water to a gray water utility apparatus
The present device, kit and method of using, according to the principles of the present invention, overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a water conservation device, kit and method of using is disclosed in which the device comprises the operationally interconnected connected elements of a T-junction pipe, a first shutoff valve, a filter entrance pipe, a water filter apparatus, a filter exit pipe, a storage tank, an overflow pipe, an air vent stack, a second shutoff valve, a bypass pipe, a fresh water feed pipe, a third shutoff valve, a fresh water drain pipe, a fourth shutoff valve, a grey water drain pipe, a water pump, and a primary grey water feed pipe. The kit comprises the unattached elements of a T-junction pipe, a first shutoff valve, a filter entrance pipe, a water filter apparatus, a filter exit pipe, a storage tank, an overflow pipe, an air vent stack, a second shutoff valve, a bypass pipe, a fresh water feed pipe, a third shutoff valve, a fresh water drain pipe, a fourth shutoff valve, a grey water drain pipe, a water pump, and a primary grey water feed pipe and a float valve. The method comprises the steps of adjoining, affixing, associating, attaching, binding, bonding, cohering, combining, conjoining, connecting, consolidating, joining, linking, mating, obtaining, placing, putting, tying, and uniting.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known type water conservation devices now present in the prior art, the present invention provides an improved water conservation device, which will be described subsequently in great detail, is to provide a new and improved water conservation device which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by the prior art, either alone or in any combination thereof.
To attain this, the present invention essentially comprises a the operationally interconnected connected elements of a T-junction pipe, a first shutoff valve, a filter entrance pipe, a water filter apparatus, a filter exit pipe, a storage tank, an overflow pipe, an air vent stack, a second shutoff valve, a bypass pipe, a fresh water feed pipe, a third shutoff valve, a fresh water drain pipe, a fourth shutoff valve, a grey water drain pipe, a water pump, and a primary grey water feed pipe. The kit comprises the unattached elements of a T-junction pipe, a first shutoff valve, a filter entrance pipe, a water filter apparatus, a filter exit pipe, a storage tank, an overflow pipe, an air vent stack, a second shutoff valve, a bypass pipe, a fresh water feed pipe, a third shutoff valve, a fresh water drain pipe, a fourth shutoff valve, a grey water drain pipe, a water pump, and a primary grey water feed pipe and a float valve. The method comprises the steps of adjoining, affixing, associating, attaching, binding, bonding, cohering, combining, conjoining, connecting, consolidating, joining, linking, mating, obtaining, placing, putting, tying, and uniting.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution of the art may be better appreciated.
The invention may also include float valve. There are of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims attached.
Numerous objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading of the following detailed description of presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompany drawings. In this respect, before explaining the current embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved water conservation device that has all the advantages of the prior art water conservation device and none of the disadvantages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved water conservation device that may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved water conservation device that has a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly is then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such multipurpose storage unit and system economically available to the buying public.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new water conservation device that provides in the apparatuses and methods of the prior art some of the advantages thererof, while simultaneously overcoming some of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.
Even still another object of the present invention is to provide a water conservation device having operationally interconnected elements of a T-junction pipe, a first shutoff valve, a filter entrance pipe, a water filter apparatus, a filter exit pipe, a storage tank, an overflow pipe, an air vent stack, a second shutoff valve, a bypass pipe, a fresh water feed pipe, a third shutoff valve, a fresh water drain pipe, a fourth shutoff valve, a grey water drain pipe, a water pump, and a primary grey water feed pipe. This combination of elements makes it possible to capture gray water generated from a drain of a fresh water utility apparatus operationally connected to a fresh water source and to recycle the captured gray water to a gray water utility apparatus.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a kit comprising the unconnected elements of the device.
Lastly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved method of using comprising the steps of adjoining, affixing, associating, attaching, binding, bonding, cohering, combining, conjoining, connecting, consolidating, joining, linking, mating, obtaining, placing, putting, tying, and uniting.
Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientist, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any way.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty that characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompany drawings and description matter in which there is illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.